{"history":[],"article":{"id":"dfe5d9c9-6c0e-47c0-9a38-26e0b2e967b2","title":"Kimek–Kipchak confederation","slug":"kimek-kipchak-confederation","content":":::summary\n**Common Name:** Kimek confederation \n**Conventional Long Name:** Kimek confederation \n**Status:** Tribal [confederation](https://bliptext.com/articles/confederation) \n**Capital:** [Imekia](https://bliptext.com/articles/imekia) \n**Year Start:** 880 \n**Year End:** 1035 \n**P 1:** Second Turkic Khaganate \n**P 2:** Oghuz Yabgu State \n**S 1:** Cumania \n**Image Map:** Қимақтар.png \n**Religion:** [Shamanism](https://bliptext.com/articles/shamanism), [Tengrism](https://bliptext.com/articles/tengrism), [Nestorianism](https://bliptext.com/articles/nestorianism), [Buddhism](https://bliptext.com/articles/buddhism), [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam) \n**Title Leader:** [Khagan](https://bliptext.com/articles/khagan) \n:::\n\n# \nThe **Kimek–Kipchak confederation** was a medieval [Turkic](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkic-people) state formed by seven peoples, including the [Yemeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/yemek) and [Kipchaks](https://bliptext.com/articles/kipchaks), in the area between the [Ob](https://bliptext.com/articles/ob-river) and [Irtysh](https://bliptext.com/articles/irtysh-river) rivers.\n\n# Name\n[Minorsky](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-minorsky), citing Marquart, Barthold, Semenov and other sources, proposes that the name Kīmāk (pronounced Kimäk) is derived from Iki-Imäk, \"the two Imäk\", probably referring to the first two clans (Īmī and Īmāk) of the federation.\nOn the other hand, [Pritsak](https://bliptext.com/articles/omeljan-pritsak) attempted to connect the Kimek with the Proto-Mongolic **Kumo** of the **Kumo** Xi confederation (庫莫奚; [Middle Chinese](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-chinese): kʰuoH-mɑk̚-ɦei; *qu(o)mâġ-ġay, from *quo \"yellowish\" plus denominal suffix *-mAk); Golden judges [Pritsak](https://bliptext.com/articles/omeljan-pritsak)'s reconstruction \"highly problematic\", as [Pritsak](https://bliptext.com/articles/omeljan-pritsak) did not explain how Quomâġ might have produced Kimek; still, Golden considers the connection with the Proto-Mongolic world seriously.\n[Mahmud al-Kashgari](https://bliptext.com/articles/mahmud-al-kashgari) does not mention any Kimek, but **Yamāk**; Kashgari further remarked that [Kara-Khanids](https://bliptext.com/articles/kara-khanid-khanate) like him considered Yemeks to be \"a tribe of the Kipchaks\", though contemporary Kipchaks considered themselves a different party.\nThe ethnonym Yemäk might have been transcribed in the mid 7th century by Chinese authors as 鹽莫 Yánmò < [Middle Chinese](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-chinese) *jiäm-mâk, referring a [Tiele](https://bliptext.com/articles/tiele-people) group who initially inhabited northwestern Mongolia before migrating to north of [Altay Mountains](https://bliptext.com/articles/altay-mountains) and [Irtysh](https://bliptext.com/articles/irtysh-river) zone.\nInitially, Golden (1992:202, 227, 263) accepted the identification of Kimeks with Imeks/Yimeks/Yemeks, because the /k/ > ∅, resulting in Kimek > İmek, was indeed attested in several Medieval Kipchak dialects; Golden also thought Yemeks unlikely to be 鹽莫 *jiäm-mâk > Yánmò in Chinese source.\nHowever, Golden later changed his mind, reasoning that, as the Medieval Kipchak dialectal sound-change /k/ > ∅ had not yet happened in the mid-7th century [Old Turkic](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-turkic), the identification of Yemeks with Kimeks is disputed.\nAs a result, Golden (2002:660-665) later abandons the Kimeks > Yemeks identification and becomes more amenable to the identification of 鹽莫 Yánmò with Yemeks, by scholars such as Hambis, [Zuev](https://bliptext.com/articles/yury-zuev), and Kumekov, cited in Golden (1992:202).\nAccording to Tishin (2018), Yemeks were simply the most important of the seven constituent tribes whose representatives met at the [Irtysh](https://bliptext.com/articles/irtysh-river) valley, where the diverse Kimek tribal union emerged, as related by [Gardizi](https://bliptext.com/articles/gardizi).\n\n# Origin\nThe Kimek confederation originated as a tribal union of seven tribes or clans.\nThese tribes originated in the steppes of eastern Central Asia.\nThe bulk of these migrated to present-day Kazakhstan after the destruction of the [Uyghur Khaganate](https://bliptext.com/articles/uyghur-khaganate) (840).\nThe Kimek state was formed at the end of the 9th– and beginning of the 10th century composed out of tribal domains, ruled by a khagan who was the supreme among subject leaders.\n\n# Historical background\nThe 10-century geographical treaty [Hudud al-Alam](https://bliptext.com/articles/hudud-al-alam) gave a description of the cultures and ways of life of Kimeks and Kipchaks.\nThe Kimaks led a semi-settled life, as the Hudūd mentioned many wandering tribal grazers as well as a town named *Yimäkiya (> Yamakkiyya > ms. Namakiyya); while the Kipchaks, in some customs, resembled the contemporary Oghuzes, who were nomadic herders.\nThe southern neighbors of Kimaks were Karluks, who preserved their independence for another 200 years.\nThe Kimak Khakan's residence was in the city Imakia ([Pavlodar](https://bliptext.com/articles/pavlodar), [Kazakhstan](https://bliptext.com/articles/kazakhstan)) on the Irtysh.\nIn the middle of the 7th century, one of the future Kimek confederation's constituent tribes, the Yemaks, lived near the Irtysh, north of the Altai, as part of the [Western Turkic Khaganate](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-turkic-khaganate), and were possibly known to Chinese as 鹽莫 Yánmò (< [Middle Chinese](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-chinese) *jiäm-mâk).\nAfter the disintegration of the Western Türkic Kaganate in 743, a part of the Kimaks remained in its successor, the [Uyghur Kaganate](https://bliptext.com/articles/uyghur-kaganate) (740–840), and another part retained their independence.\n[Lev Gumilyov](https://bliptext.com/articles/lev-gumilyov) connects the Kimek to Western Turk tribe [Chumukun](https://bliptext.com/articles/duolu) (處木昆): as Kimaks were known only to Arabs and Persians with [Chumukun](https://bliptext.com/articles/duolu) only known to Chinese.\nDuring that period a nucleus of the Kimak confederation's tribes was consolidated.\nThe head of the Kimak confederation had the title shad tutuk, i.e., \"Prince Governing, or Ruling”. The Yemek tribe became the head of the union, and later of the Kimak Kaganate. According to Pritsak (1982:331-33), Kimeks were known to Chinese as 庫莫 Kumo < [MC](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-chinese) kʰuoH-mɑk̚ < *qu(o)mâġ associated with the [Xi](https://bliptext.com/articles/kumo-xi) < *ɦei < *Ġay, a people whom Islamic writers knew as Qay and whose ethnonym is often linked to Mongolic *mogaï \"snake\" ([Khalkha](https://bliptext.com/articles/khalkha-mongolian) могой mogoj). Pletnyova proposed that \"A snake has seven heads\"/\"A dragon with seven heads\", recorded by [Kashgari](https://bliptext.com/articles/mahmud-al-kashgari) reflects the consolidation of the Kimek confederation. However, Golden (1992) found no textual evidence to link qay with Mongolic *mogaï,. Golden, following Klyashtorny, contended that the Qays' identification as the \"People of the Snake\", or rather \"People of the Chieftain named Snake/Dragon\", actually resulted from Qays' participation in an anti-Karakhanid coalition led by Yabaku chieftain Budrach, whose epithet Böke means \"Great Dragon / Great Snake\".\nBefore the middle of the 8th century, the Kimaks bordered the [Karluks](https://bliptext.com/articles/karluks) and [Tokuz-Oguzes](https://bliptext.com/articles/tokuz-oguzes) on the south, and the [Yenisei Kyrgyz](https://bliptext.com/articles/yenisei-kyrgyz) on the east.\nAfter dissolution of the Western Turkic Khaganate in 743, the main body of the Kimaks remained in the Irtysh area.\nIn the late 8th or early 9th century, part of the Kimak tribes migrated in two directions, northwest to the [Urals](https://bliptext.com/articles/urals) and southwest to the northern [Zhetysu](https://bliptext.com/articles/jetisu).\nThe migration changed the ethnic composition of the Middle [Volga](https://bliptext.com/articles/volga) and Lower [Kama](https://bliptext.com/articles/kama) areas in the west.\nSpreading from the Irtysh area, Kimaks occupied territory between the rivers [Yaik](https://bliptext.com/articles/yaik) and [Emba](https://bliptext.com/articles/emba-river), and between the [Aral](https://bliptext.com/articles/aral-sea) and [Caspian](https://bliptext.com/articles/caspian-sea) steppes, to the Zhetysu area.\nBetween the 9th– and 11th century the Kimek were concentrated in the middle [Irtysh](https://bliptext.com/articles/irtysh) basin and northeastern [Semirechye](https://bliptext.com/articles/jetisu).\n\n# History\n\n## 9th and 10th century\nAfter the breakup of the [Uyghur Khaganate](https://bliptext.com/articles/uyghur-khaganate) in 840, the Central Asian tribes found themselves unattached.\nPortions of the Turkic Eymür, Bayandur, and [Shiwei](https://bliptext.com/articles/shiwei-people) Tatar tribes joined the core of the Kimak tribes.\nThe Tatar tribes already were members of the Kimak confederation—some had already participated in the initial formation of the Kimak Kaganate.\nThe Kipchaks also had their Khanlyk, but politically they were dependent on the Kimaks.\nThe dominating Kimak tribe mostly lived on the banks of Irtysh.\nThe Kipchaks, described by Hudud al-Alam, occupied a separate territory located to the west, approximately in the southeastern part of the Southern [Urals](https://bliptext.com/articles/urals).\nChinese chroniclers wrote about the mountains of the Kipchak land—in the chronicle [Yuanshi](https://bliptext.com/articles/history-of-yuan) these mountains are named Yùlǐbólǐ (玉里伯里), and the Kipchaks are called Qīnchá 欽察.\nNorth of Kipchaks and Kimaks lay endless forest.\nOf all the numerous tribes, the Kimaks were ready to head a new political tribal union.\nThey created a new Kimak Kaganate state, a federation of seven tribes, seven Khanlyks.\n[Abu Said Gardezi](https://bliptext.com/articles/abu-said-gardezi) (d. 1061) wrote that the Kimak state incorporated seven related tribes: [Yemeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/yemek), [Kipchaks](https://bliptext.com/articles/kipchaks), [Eymür](https://bliptext.com/articles/ayrums), [Tatar](https://bliptext.com/articles/tatars-kimek), [Bayandur](https://bliptext.com/articles/bayandur), [Lanikaz](https://bliptext.com/articles/lanikaz), and [Ajlad](https://bliptext.com/articles/ajlad).\nAt its height, the Kimak Kaganate had 12 nuclear tribes, extending from the Irtysh river and Altai mountains in the east to the Black Sea steppe in the west, into the taiga fringes in the north, and southward into the desert-steppe.\nAfter their decline, the [Jeti-Su](https://bliptext.com/articles/jetisu) Kimaks retreated back to the upper Irtysh region, and the western Kipchak-Kimaks settled in the North [Pontic](https://bliptext.com/articles/pontic-caspian-steppe) steppes.\nThe Kimaks were originally [Tengrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/tengriism), with possibly some [Nestorian Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/nestorian-christianity) communities.\nIn the 11th century [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam) made some inroads.\n[Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab) and [Persian](https://bliptext.com/articles/persian-people) geographers, travelers, and historians provide an abundance of information about the Kimaks.\nIn 821 the Arab Tamim ibn Bahr traveled to [Tokuz-Oguzes](https://bliptext.com/articles/tokuz-oguzes) through Kimak and Kipchak lands.\nHis descriptions were later used by other authors.\nThe Persian traveler [Gardezi](https://bliptext.com/articles/abu-said-gardezi) recorded the Kimaks, noting that their location was previously on record as the territory of the people called by the Chinese authors \"Chumukun\".\nIn the 9th century, the Kimaks allied with the Oguz.\nIn the second half of the 9th century, the reinforced Kimaks began drifting westwards.\nThey occupied the lands of the [Pecheneg](https://bliptext.com/articles/pecheneg) (Besenyo, Badjinak, Patsinak, [Pecheneg](https://bliptext.com/articles/pecheneg), called by the Arabs “Badjnaks”, and by the Byzantines “Patsinaks”), nomadic cattle breeders whose nucleus were the tribes of the [Kangar union](https://bliptext.com/articles/kangar-union).\nThe Pecheneg position worsened, their union was defeated by an alliance of Oguzes, Kimaks, and Karluks.\nKimaks, together with Oguzes, seized Kangar Pecheneg lands along the [Seyhun](https://bliptext.com/articles/syr-darya) ([Syr-Darya](https://bliptext.com/articles/syr-darya)) and in the Aral area, taking over the pastures in the Southern [Urals](https://bliptext.com/articles/urals).\nUnder pressure of Kimaks, the Pecheneg moved from the Aral to the Lower [Itil](https://bliptext.com/articles/atil) steppes, and from there on to the [Don](https://bliptext.com/articles/don-river)-[Dnieper](https://bliptext.com/articles/dnieper) [interfluvial](https://bliptext.com/articles/interfluve), pushing the [Magyars](https://bliptext.com/articles/magyars) westward.\nAt the end of the 9th century in the south of the Eastern European steppes formed a new nomadic union of Pecheneg.\nTheir neighbors were stronger and better known people: Oghuzes, Kipchaks, Magyars, and the [Khazar Kaganate](https://bliptext.com/articles/khazars).\nUnder pressure from joint assaults by [Cuman](https://bliptext.com/articles/cuman)/Kipchaks and their linguistic Oghuz cousins of the Kimek Khaganate, and taking advantage of the weakness of the Khazar Kaganate, the Pecheneg moved through its territory to the west, bringing destruction to the settled populations of Bulgars and [Alans](https://bliptext.com/articles/alans) in the N.Caucasus.\nIn the 10th century, the Kimek were allied with the Oghuzes.\nIn his 10th-century work, [Ibn Haukal](https://bliptext.com/articles/ibn-haukal) drew a map showing that Kipchak-Kimak tribes together with Oghuzes pastured in the steppes north of the Aral Sea, and [al-Masudi](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-masudi) at approximately the same time wrote that all of them were coaching along Emba and Yaik.\nIn Middle East, the Cuman–Kipchak country began to be called [Desht-i-Kipchak](https://bliptext.com/articles/desht-i-kipchak) and [Cumania](https://bliptext.com/articles/cumania).\n[Al-Biruni](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-biruni) noted that Oghuzes quite often pastured in the country of Kimek.\nSome clans of Kimak tribes quite often coached along the coast of the Caspian Sea: \"[Shahname](https://bliptext.com/articles/shahname)\" even calls that sea as Kimak Sea\". The main western neighbors of Kimek-Kipchaks in the 10th century were [Bashkirs](https://bliptext.com/articles/bashkirs), with whom at that time the westernmost Kipchak clans established very close contacts.\nThey dominated the heartland of Asia, controlled a key central portion of the [Silk Road](https://bliptext.com/articles/silk-road), and influenced events from China to Persia and Europe, on a par with the [Scythians](https://bliptext.com/articles/scythian) and [Mongols](https://bliptext.com/articles/mongols).\nThe Kimak polity may seen as one of the great pastoral, nomadic empires of all time.\nAt the end of the 10th century, not only the [Caliphate](https://bliptext.com/articles/caliphate) writers and scientists were knowledgeable about them, but in the Central Asian states journeys to the Kimak country were well known and discussed in the markets and chaihanas (tea houses).\nThe Kimeks were ruled by a \"[Kagan](https://bliptext.com/articles/khagan), also called \"Khakan\" in the eastern records, not of the [Ashina](https://bliptext.com/articles/ashina-tribe) dynasty. In the 10th and 11th centuries the ruling clan was the [Tatar](https://bliptext.com/articles/tatars-kimek). Later they appear to have been ruled by the Ilbari clan.\nDuring the 10th century the Kipchaks became independent within the Kaganate (if they were ever dependent in the first place) and began migrating westward.\nThe zenith of Kimak power came under the Ilburi rulers near the end of the 12th century.\nIn 1183, the Kimaks attacked [Volga Bulgaria](https://bliptext.com/articles/volga-bulgaria), and they twice sacked [Khwarezm](https://bliptext.com/articles/khwarezm), in the 1152 and 1197.\n\n## Decline\nThe Kimak federation occupied a huge territory from the [Tobol](https://bliptext.com/articles/tobol) and Irtysh rivers to the Caspian Sea and [Syr-Darya](https://bliptext.com/articles/syr-darya).\nThe northern border of the Kimak federation was the Siberian taiga, the eastern border was the Altai Mountains, the southern border was the lifeless steppe Bet Pak.\nThe borders naturally protecting them from their enemies, the Kimaks lived undisturbed.\nTheir neighbors were Karluks, Oguzes and Kyrgyzes.\nKimaks, Kipchaks, Oguzes, Petchenegs, [Ugrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/ugrians) and other peoples and ethnic groups of the multi-ethnic Kimak Kaganate lived peacefully and prosperous.\nIn the beginning of the 11th century the Kimaks and Kipchaks pushed the Oguzes to the south, Petchenegs to the west, Karluks to the southeast, and the Ugrians to the north into the Siberian taiga, and became owners of the ancient [Kangju](https://bliptext.com/articles/kangju).\nIndividual Khanlyks of the Kimak Kaganate grew stronger, separatist forces increased, undermining central authority.\nThe Khakan became only a militia leader, there was no central army, each subject Khan had his small army.\nThe Kimaks and then [Khitay](https://bliptext.com/articles/khitan-people) pressed the Kipchaks to move west, occupying lands that earlier belonged to Oguzes.\nAfter seizing Oguz lands, the Kipchaks grew considerably stronger, and the Kimaks became dependents of them.\nThe Kipchak migration was a planned invasion, a capture of richer pastures.\nPart of the Kimaks remained in the ancient land along the Irtysh, and a part left with the Kipchaks to the west.\nA larger portion of the Kimak Kaganate tribes, the Kimaks, Kipchaks, Pechenegs, and the Oguzes migrated to the west, to beyond Ural, Volga, Don and Dniepr, changing the ethnic map of Eastern Europe.\nThe southern Karluks joined the [Karakhanid](https://bliptext.com/articles/karakhanid) state.\nA significant mass of Kipchaks and Kimaks remained in the Irtysh territories with the ancient [Volga Finns](https://bliptext.com/articles/volga-finns) of western Siberia.\nSubsequently, they formed the [Siberian Tatars](https://bliptext.com/articles/siberian-tatars) and other Turkic peoples.\nIn the west, the Kipchaks followed the path taken previously by the Pechenegs under pressure of the Oguzes, and later the Oguzes under pressure of the Kimaks and Kipchaks.\nThey crossed the Volga, Don, [Dniestr](https://bliptext.com/articles/dniestr), and Dniepr, and reached the Danube.\nOn their way the Kipchaks were joined by the remains of the Petchenegs and Oguzes.\nThe Rus chronicles under year 1054 records an appearance near [Kiev](https://bliptext.com/articles/kiev) of the Oguz people, who were pushed by Kipchaks, a branch of middle Irtysh and [Ob](https://bliptext.com/articles/ob-river) Kimaks.\nA court doctor of the Seljuk Sultans, [al-Marwazi](https://bliptext.com/articles/sharaf-al-zaman-al-marwazi) tells that \"Kais\" and \"Kuns\" expelled the \"Shars\" tribe ([Middle Turkic](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-turkic-languages) sarïğ), and the Shars, in turn, caused the chain displacements and migrations of the [Turkmens](https://bliptext.com/articles/qarluqs), then [Oghuzes](https://bliptext.com/articles/oghuz-turks) and finally [Pechenegs](https://bliptext.com/articles/pechenegs).\n[Matthew of Edessa](https://bliptext.com/articles/matthew-of-edessa) tells that the \"people of snakes\" pressed the \"red-haired\", and the \"red-haired\" moved on the Oguzes, who together with the Petchenegs attacked Byzantium.\n[Pletnyova](https://bliptext.com/articles/svetlana-pletnyova) identified the Kais as Kimaks and the Sharys as Kipchaks, whose endonym was [calqued](https://bliptext.com/articles/calque) by [East Slavs](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-slavs) as [Polovtsy](https://bliptext.com/articles/polovtsy) (compare [OES](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-east-slavic) polovъje, meaning \"light yellow\").\nBesides the Sharys, i.e. the yellow Kipchaks, participated other Kimak hordes (Kais, Kuns), and other members of the Kaganate in the advance to the West.\nHowever, [Golden](https://bliptext.com/articles/peter-benjamin-golden) identified the Qays as the [Kumo Xi](https://bliptext.com/articles/kumo-xi) who were of [Proto-Mongolic](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-mongols) origins, and Shary as \"[Yellow Uyghurs](https://bliptext.com/articles/yugurs)\", led by Basmyl chiefs, rather than Kipchaks.\nand \"the People of the Snake\" should be interpreted as \"People of the chieftain named Snake-Dragon\" and identified with an anti-Karakhanid tribal coalition (including the Qays among others) led by Budrach, a [Yabaku](https://bliptext.com/articles/yabaku) chieftain whose epithet was Böke \"Great Dragon / Great Snake\", following Klyashtorny.\nThe Kimak Kaganate's fall in the mid-11th century was caused by external factors.\nThe migration of the Central Asian [Mongolic](https://bliptext.com/articles/mongolic-languages)-speaking nomads pushed by the [Mongolic](https://bliptext.com/articles/mongolic-languages) [Khitay](https://bliptext.com/articles/liao-dynasty) state Lyao formed in Northern China in 916 AD. The [Khitay](https://bliptext.com/articles/liao-dynasty) nomads occupied the Kimak and Kipchak lands west of the Irtysh.\nThe Kaganate thereafter declined, and the Kimeks were probably at times subjected to [Kyrgyz](https://bliptext.com/articles/kyrgyz-people) and [Kara-Khitai](https://bliptext.com/articles/kara-khitai) overlordship.\nIn the 11th–12th centuries the Mongolic-speaking [Naiman](https://bliptext.com/articles/naimans) tribe in its westward move displaced the Kimaks-Kipchaks from the Mongolian Altai and Upper Irtysh.\nFrom the middle of the 12th century the Mongolic tribes predominated almost in all the territory of modern Mongolia.\nIn the 12th century the territory of the khanate included the southern Urals, the eastern Volga area, the [Mangyshlak Peninsula](https://bliptext.com/articles/mangyshlak-peninsula), and the region northwest of the Aral Sea.\nTheir centers included [Kimäk](https://bliptext.com/articles/kim-k) and [Sangir](https://bliptext.com/articles/sangir-central-asia).\nMost of the population was semi-nomadic, a minority were sedentary farmers, and many of the city dwellers were craftsmen.\nIn the northern parts of Kimek territory were underground towns of tunnel networks and chambers to escape the cold.\nIn the 13th century the remnant of the Kimak Khanate was conquered by the [Mongols](https://bliptext.com/articles/mongols) and its lands were assigned to the Ulus of [Jochi](https://bliptext.com/articles/jochi).\nSee [Golden Horde](https://bliptext.com/articles/golden-horde) for the area's subsequent history.\nA significant part of the population in the Kipchak Khanate state, created by the Mongols, was from the Kimak Kaganate lands.\nThe Kimak leader [Bachman Khan](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachman-khan) resisted some years after the Mongols conquered the region.\n\n# Economy\nWith their settlements and pastures stretching for thousands of kilometers from the Irtysh to the Caspian Sea and from the [taiga](https://bliptext.com/articles/taiga) to the Kazakhstan semi-deserts, the economy of the Kimak confederation, varied between the eastern areas and the western areas, and between the northern forest-steppe and the southern foothills of the [Tian-Shan](https://bliptext.com/articles/tian-shan) mountains.\nThe Persian Anonym emphasized that Kipchaks living in the extreme western areas of the Kaganate lead a more primitive way of life than those who lived near the Irtysh, where the city Imak was the center of the Kimak union and summer seat of the Kimak Kagan.\nThe Kimak economy was classic Central Asian pastoral nomadism, with the Turkic pattern of widely varying local economic specializations and adaptations.\nThe key animal was horse and the main subsistence animal was sheep.\nAs a subsistence animal, fatty-tailed sheep provided meat for food, oil for cooking, and tallow for light.\nThe poorest Kimaks herded cattle.\nThey wintered in the steppe between the [Emba](https://bliptext.com/articles/emba-river) and Ural rivers, but summered near the Irtysh.\nThe summer home of the Kimak Khakans was in the town of Imak, in the middle Irtysh, the winter capital was Tamim on the southern shore of lake [Balkhash](https://bliptext.com/articles/balkhash-lake).\nArcheology confirms that te Kimaks in the Irtysh area were semi-settled, [Al-Idrisi](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-idrisi) in the 12th century wrote about Kimak cultivated lands as a well-known fact, with wheat crops, millet, barley, legumes, and even rice.\nThe Kimaks also raised grapes and were beekeepers.\nThey left remains of irrigation systems and ruins of castles.\nAl-Idrisi describes in detail the Kimak cities, emphasizing that all of them were well fortified.\nIn the Kagan's city, with its concentration of Kimak aristocracy, were markets and temples.\nSedentary life led to construction of more stable dwellings, in the settlements and cities clay-walled semi-dugouts were widely used alongside felt [yurts](https://bliptext.com/articles/yurt).\nTypically, both type of dwellings had a hearth in the center.\nThe Kipchaks of both written sources and archeological evidence combined pastoral cattle breeding with some elements of sedentary life.\nThe \"Desht-i-Kipchak\" or Kiptchak steppes were well organized for prosperous nomadic cattle breeding.\nThe steppe was subdivided into locations with certain pasture routes, [yaylak](https://bliptext.com/articles/yaylak) summer settlements and [kishlak](https://bliptext.com/articles/kishlak) winter settlements.\nNear permanent yaylak and kishlak settlements were [kurgan](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurgan) cemeteries.\nIn the settlements and along the steppe shlyakhs ('roads') and coaching routes Kipchaks erected ancestor sanctuaries with stone statues representing the deceased.\nThe favorite animal was the horse, used for riding and draught in agriculture, and horse meat was considered the best.\nAmong the crafts were leather processing, felt manufacturing, clothing and footwear, horse harnesses of leather and felt.\nThe Kimaks and other tribes of the Kaganate produced weapons, implements, and agricultural tools.\nIn the forest-steppe areas woodworking was widespread.\nUtensils, yurt parts, etc. were made of wood.\nIron, gold, and silver were mined and processed.\nKimak cities were mostly located along the trading ways.\nTrade was mostly barter, farmers exchanged grain and flour for lambs and leather, but monetary trade was active as well.\nUnder the influence of trading relations with Muslim Arabs, the Kimak Kaganate was drawn into the slave-trading business.\n\"Objectionable people\" and even relatives were sold into slavery.\nSlavery became the fate of multitudes, sold by [Khitay](https://bliptext.com/articles/khitan-people) running endless manhunt attacks and roundups.\nThis tragedy lasted for 200 years, c. 850 – 1050.\n\n# Culture\nThe Kimak were literate in the [Old Turkic script](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-turkic-script).\nAbu Dulaf (c. 940), and Ibn al-Fakikh wrote about the Kimak Kaganate: \"They have reeds with which they write\".\nArcheologists found 10th- to 11th-century bronze mirrors with inscriptions near Urdjar in the Tarbagatai mountains, and in the Irtysh region.\nL. Kimball stipulates that literate Kimak had works of law, religion, history, and epic poetry, none of which have survived.\nAlthough the Kimak had copper coins, most trade was done by barter.\nHunting was a key part of Kimak life.\nLarge group hunts served as training for war.\nPride, prestige, and leadership were associated with the use of falcons, hawks, golden eagles, and hunting dogs, and with the pursuit of beasts of prey, including the now extinct [Caspian tiger](https://bliptext.com/articles/caspian-tiger) and the [snow leopard](https://bliptext.com/articles/snow-leopard).\nKimak Khans wore golden crowns and clothes sewn with gold.\nAl Idrisi relayed that Kimaks extract gold with mercury and float it in dung.\nKimak towns were a symbiosis of local predominantly Turkic Kimak populations, pre-existing autochthonous culture, and people from elsewhere in Central Asia.\nA characteristic feature was that all towns were well-fortified, and in each a prince-chieftain headed a garrison.\nTowns were situated on lake shores, river banks, in border areas, and in impregnable mountain areas.\nA fortified wall with an iron gate surrounded the largest capital town Tamim of the Khakan, where also lived aristocrats.\nIn the hills stood castle-forts surrounded by moats.\nKimaks of the [Seihun](https://bliptext.com/articles/syr-darya) steppe traded in sheep.\nKimak presence on the Volga enabled them to use local major trade routes, and put them in contact with the Byzantine and Viking worlds.\nKimaks made cheese and beverages from fermented mare's milk, some of which probably were distilled to high potency, and beverages from rice, millet, barley, and honey.\n\n# Religion\nThe Kimak religion was the same as the majority of Turks.\nIn the steppes from the Baikal to the Danube the Turks believed in Tengri.\nThe western neighbors of the Kyrgyzes (Kimaks, Kipchaks, Cumans, Oguzes, Pechenegs, Karluks, etc.), who were located closer to the Muslim lands, still professed [Tengrianism](https://bliptext.com/articles/tengrianism) in the 9th century.\nThe Kimaks had a tradition of ancestor reverence.\nOn the border with the [Uyghurs](https://bliptext.com/articles/uyghurs), Kimaks adopted [Manichaeism](https://bliptext.com/articles/manichaeism).\nThe Kimaks also worshipped rocks with images (apparently ancient [petroglyphs](https://bliptext.com/articles/petroglyphs)) and images of human feet.\n[Al-Idrisi](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-idrisi) spoke about belief in various spirits, and about acceptance by some Kimaks of Manichaeism and Islam.\nApparently, the last two religions started penetrating the Kimaks in the 10th century but became widely accepted much later, and then only in the central Irtysh and Balkhash areas.\n\n## Sanctuaries and Burial customs\nThe most typical and notable feature of Kimak-Kipchak and Cuman culture are the [kurgan stelae](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurgan-stelae) or balbals, erected at sanctuaries with square fencing of rough stone and gravel.\nIn the 6th through 9th centuries similar sanctuaries with statues of deceased ancestors were built by the Göktürks and Uyghurs.\nAfter destruction of the Göktürk and Uyghur Kaganates, Kipchaks and Cumans were one of the few Turkic peoples who preserved this tradition.\nCumans and Kipchaks continued the tradition until the loss of their political independence.\nFrom the end of the 9th century the construction of small fenced sanctuaries devoted to ancestors, with a statue (or statues) inside became a distinctive feature of the Cumans and Kipchaks.\nThe obelisks were often simple rough stelae, frequently with figures without details.\nFaces were indicated by deeply carved lines, frequently heart-shaped.\nFemale statues differed from men's by round breasts.\nThe sanctuaries were built only for rich and noble nomads.\nNizami described Kimak reverence to their ancestors.\nKimaks and Cumans/Kipchaks erected many statues, believed to have special power and honored accordingly: \"All Cumans/Kipchak tribes, when they happen to pass there, bow down twice in front of this obelisk. Mounted or on foot, they bow to it as to a Creator. A horseman takes an arrow from his quiver in honor of it, shepherds with flocks leave a sheep behind\".\nSome Kimaks cremated their dead: near the Irtysh cremation burials have been found.\nS.A.Pletneva developed a comparative description of Middle Age N. Pontic burials customs including Kimaks, Cumans and Kipchaks.\nThe grave gifts are those necessary for a nomad during a trip to the next world: horse harnesses, weapons, less frequently personal decorations and vessels with ritual food.\nNext to the diseased was laid his true comrade (‘tovarich’), a horse.\nThe belief in need to supply the diseased with the things necessary on the road and at least for initial life in the other world is described by the 10th-century traveller and writer [Ibn Fadlan](https://bliptext.com/articles/ahmad-ibn-fadlan), describing not a Kimak-Kipchak but an Oguz funeral ceremony.\nHowever, from nomad [kurgan](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurgan) excavations we know that the funeral ceremonies of the Turkic peoples was generally similar, meaning the general provisions for the construction of funeral complexes were identical.\n\"And if a person from their number would die, for him is dug a big hole in a shape of a house, he would be dressed in his jacket, his belt, his bow... and would put in his hand a wooden cup with nabiz, would put before him a wooden vessel with nabiz, would bring everything that he has, and would lay it with him in that house... Then would place him in it and cover the house above him with decking, and pile above it something like a dome of clay. Then they would take horses, and depending on their number would kill a hundred of them, or two hundred, or one, and would eat their meat, except for the head, legs, hide, and tail. And, truly, they stretch all this on wooden frames and say: \"These are his horses on whom he would go to paradise\". And if he ever killed men and was brave, they would carve images from wood numbering those whom he killed, would place them on his tomb and would say: \"These are his youngsters who would serve him in paradise\".\"\n- Ibn Fadlan\nThe nomads were always accompanied into the other world by slaughtered horses, and sometimes by others animals, and enemies killed by him represented by simple stelae or rough human images of stone or wood.\nThe horses were necessary for speedy crossing, for coaching from one world to another, the more of them the better.\nAmong Oguzes the images of the deceased were neither installed over the tombs nor in special sanctuaries.\nThat custom was only among the population of the Kimak Kaganate, and mainly among the Kipchaks.\n# [Kipchak \"balbal\" in Dnipro | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Polovtsy.jpg]\n\n## Khan-Priests\nTurkic khans, including the Kimak Khan, had a special role as High Priest and bearer of prophecy.\nShabib al-Karani left a probably distorted description of such a ritual:\n\"The Khakan of the Turks has a specific day when they light a huge bonfire. Khakan speaks an oracular phrase into the fire. Then he looks intently staring into the fire, and turns away from the fire. If his face becomes yellow, it is a sign of fertility and good, if it becomes white, harvest will fail, if it becomes green means illness and epidemics, and if it becomes black, it indicates a death of the Khakan or a distant journey. When the latter happens, Khakan hastens to go on a journey or a raid. Kimak shamans had yada, \"rain stones\", which were used to bring rain when it was needed.\"\n\n# Tribal composition\n\n## Gardizi list\nAccording to [Gardizi](https://bliptext.com/articles/gardizi) (d. 1061), the Kimek confederation included the seven tribes of:\n\n## Hudud list\n10th-century [Hudud al-'Alam](https://bliptext.com/articles/hudud-al-alam) mentions the \"country of Kīmāk\", ruled by a khagan (king) who has eleven lieutenants that hold hereditary fiefs.\nThis suggests that there were 11 divisions.\n\n# List of known rulers\n\n# Literature\n[Kimäk Qağanlığı](https://bliptext.com/articles/kim-k-qa-anl)","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T21:27:32.519Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T21:27:32.519Z","search_vector":"'confeder':3 'kimek':1 'kipchak':2","search_content":" \n**Common Name:** Kimek confederation \n**Conventional Long Name:** Kimek confederation \n**Status:** Tribal [confederation](https://bliptext.com/articles/confederation) \n**Capital:** [Imekia](https://bliptext.com/articles/imekia) \n**Year Start:** 880 \n**Year End:** 1035 \n**P 1:** Second Turkic Khaganate \n**P 2:** Oghuz Yabgu State \n**S 1:** Cumania \n**Image Map:** Қимақтар.png \n**Religion:** [Shamanism](https://bliptext.com/articles/shamanism), [Tengrism](https://bliptext.com/articles/tengrism), [Nestorianism](https://bliptext.com/articles/nestorianism), [Buddhism](https://bliptext.com/articles/buddhism), [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam) \n**Title Leader:** [Khagan](https://bliptext.com/articles/khagan) \n \n\n# \nThe **Kimek–Kipchak confederation** was a medieval [Turkic](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkic-people) state formed by seven peoples, including the [Yemeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/yemek) and [Kipchaks](https://bliptext.com/articles/kipchaks), in the area between the [Ob](https://bliptext.com/articles/ob-river) and [Irtysh](https://bliptext.com/articles/irtysh-river) rivers.\n\n# Name\n[Minorsky](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-minorsky), citing Marquart, Barthold, Semenov and other sources, proposes that the name Kīmāk (pronounced Kimäk) is derived from Iki-Imäk, \"the two Imäk\", probably referring to the first two clans (Īmī and Īmāk) of the federation.\nOn the other hand, [Pritsak](https://bliptext.com/articles/omeljan-pritsak) attempted to connect the Kimek with the Proto-Mongolic **Kumo** of the **Kumo** Xi confederation (庫莫奚; [Middle Chinese](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-chinese): kʰuoH-mɑk̚-ɦei; *qu(o)mâġ-ġay, from *quo \"yellowish\" plus denominal suffix *-mAk); Golden judges [Pritsak](https://bliptext.com/articles/omeljan-pritsak)'s reconstruction \"highly problematic\", as [Pritsak](https://bliptext.com/articles/omeljan-pritsak) did not explain how Quomâġ might have produced Kimek; still, Golden considers the connection with the Proto-Mongolic world seriously.\n[Mahmud al-Kashgari](https://bliptext.com/articles/mahmud-al-kashgari) does not mention any Kimek, but **Yamāk**; Kashgari further remarked that [Kara-Khanids](https://bliptext.com/articles/kara-khanid-khanate) like him considered Yemeks to be \"a tribe of the Kipchaks\", though contemporary Kipchaks considered themselves a different party.\nThe ethnonym Yemäk might have been transcribed in the mid 7th century by Chinese authors as 鹽莫 Yánmò ∅, resulting in Kimek > İmek, was indeed attested in several Medieval Kipchak dialects; Golden also thought Yemeks unlikely to be 鹽莫 *jiäm-mâk > Yánmò in Chinese source.\nHowever, Golden later changed his mind, reasoning that, as the Medieval Kipchak dialectal sound-change /k/ > ∅ had not yet happened in the mid-7th century [Old Turkic](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-turkic), the identification of Yemeks with Kimeks is disputed.\nAs a result, Golden (2002:660-665) later abandons the Kimeks > Yemeks identification and becomes more amenable to the identification of 鹽莫 Yánmò with Yemeks, by scholars such as Hambis, [Zuev](https://bliptext.com/articles/yury-zuev), and Kumekov, cited in Golden (1992:202).\nAccording to Tishin (2018), Yemeks were simply the most important of the seven constituent tribes whose representatives met at the [Irtysh](https://bliptext.com/articles/irtysh-river) valley, where the diverse Kimek tribal union emerged, as related by [Gardizi](https://bliptext.com/articles/gardizi).\n\n# Origin\nThe Kimek confederation originated as a tribal union of seven tribes or clans.\nThese tribes originated in the steppes of eastern Central Asia.\nThe bulk of these migrated to present-day Kazakhstan after the destruction of the [Uyghur Khaganate](https://bliptext.com/articles/uyghur-khaganate) (840).\nThe Kimek state was formed at the end of the 9th– and beginning of the 10th century composed out of tribal domains, ruled by a khagan who was the supreme among subject leaders.\n\n# Historical background\nThe 10-century geographical treaty [Hudud al-Alam](https://bliptext.com/articles/hudud-al-alam) gave a description of the cultures and ways of life of Kimeks and Kipchaks.\nThe Kimaks led a semi-settled life, as the Hudūd mentioned many wandering tribal grazers as well as a town named *Yimäkiya (> Yamakkiyya > ms. Namakiyya); while the Kipchaks, in some customs, resembled the contemporary Oghuzes, who were nomadic herders.\nThe southern neighbors of Kimaks were Karluks, who preserved their independence for another 200 years.\nThe Kimak Khakan's residence was in the city Imakia ([Pavlodar](https://bliptext.com/articles/pavlodar), [Kazakhstan](https://bliptext.com/articles/kazakhstan)) on the Irtysh.\nIn the middle of the 7th century, one of the future Kimek confederation's constituent tribes, the Yemaks, lived near the Irtysh, north of the Altai, as part of the [Western Turkic Khaganate](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-turkic-khaganate), and were possibly known to Chinese as 鹽莫 Yánmò (< [Middle Chinese](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-chinese) *jiäm-mâk).\nAfter the disintegration of the Western Türkic Kaganate in 743, a part of the Kimaks remained in its successor, the [Uyghur Kaganate](https://bliptext.com/articles/uyghur-kaganate) (740–840), and another part retained their independence.\n[Lev Gumilyov](https://bliptext.com/articles/lev-gumilyov) connects the Kimek to Western Turk tribe [Chumukun](https://bliptext.com/articles/duolu) (處木昆): as Kimaks were known only to Arabs and Persians with [Chumukun](https://bliptext.com/articles/duolu) only known to Chinese.\nDuring that period a nucleus of the Kimak confederation's tribes was consolidated.\nThe head of the Kimak confederation had the title shad tutuk, i.e., \"Prince Governing, or Ruling”. The Yemek tribe became the head of the union, and later of the Kimak Kaganate. According to Pritsak (1982:331-33), Kimeks were known to Chinese as 庫莫 Kumo < [MC](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-chinese) kʰuoH-mɑk̚ < *qu(o)mâġ associated with the [Xi](https://bliptext.com/articles/kumo-xi) < *ɦei < *Ġay, a people whom Islamic writers knew as Qay and whose ethnonym is often linked to Mongolic *mogaï \"snake\" ([Khalkha](https://bliptext.com/articles/khalkha-mongolian) могой mogoj). Pletnyova proposed that \"A snake has seven heads\"/\"A dragon with seven heads\", recorded by [Kashgari](https://bliptext.com/articles/mahmud-al-kashgari) reflects the consolidation of the Kimek confederation. However, Golden (1992) found no textual evidence to link qay with Mongolic *mogaï,. Golden, following Klyashtorny, contended that the Qays' identification as the \"People of the Snake\", or rather \"People of the Chieftain named Snake/Dragon\", actually resulted from Qays' participation in an anti-Karakhanid coalition led by Yabaku chieftain Budrach, whose epithet Böke means \"Great Dragon / Great Snake\".\nBefore the middle of the 8th century, the Kimaks bordered the [Karluks](https://bliptext.com/articles/karluks) and [Tokuz-Oguzes](https://bliptext.com/articles/tokuz-oguzes) on the south, and the [Yenisei Kyrgyz](https://bliptext.com/articles/yenisei-kyrgyz) on the east.\nAfter dissolution of the Western Turkic Khaganate in 743, the main body of the Kimaks remained in the Irtysh area.\nIn the late 8th or early 9th century, part of the Kimak tribes migrated in two directions, northwest to the [Urals](https://bliptext.com/articles/urals) and southwest to the northern [Zhetysu](https://bliptext.com/articles/jetisu).\nThe migration changed the ethnic composition of the Middle [Volga](https://bliptext.com/articles/volga) and Lower [Kama](https://bliptext.com/articles/kama) areas in the west.\nSpreading from the Irtysh area, Kimaks occupied territory between the rivers [Yaik](https://bliptext.com/articles/yaik) and [Emba](https://bliptext.com/articles/emba-river), and between the [Aral](https://bliptext.com/articles/aral-sea) and [Caspian](https://bliptext.com/articles/caspian-sea) steppes, to the Zhetysu area.\nBetween the 9th– and 11th century the Kimek were concentrated in the middle [Irtysh](https://bliptext.com/articles/irtysh) basin and northeastern [Semirechye](https://bliptext.com/articles/jetisu).\n\n# History\n\n## 9th and 10th century\nAfter the breakup of the [Uyghur Khaganate](https://bliptext.com/articles/uyghur-khaganate) in 840, the Central Asian tribes found themselves unattached.\nPortions of the Turkic Eymür, Bayandur, and [Shiwei](https://bliptext.com/articles/shiwei-people) Tatar tribes joined the core of the Kimak tribes.\nThe Tatar tribes already were members of the Kimak confederation—some had already participated in the initial formation of the Kimak Kaganate.\nThe Kipchaks also had their Khanlyk, but politically they were dependent on the Kimaks.\nThe dominating Kimak tribe mostly lived on the banks of Irtysh.\nThe Kipchaks, described by Hudud al-Alam, occupied a separate territory located to the west, approximately in the southeastern part of the Southern [Urals](https://bliptext.com/articles/urals).\nChinese chroniclers wrote about the mountains of the Kipchak land—in the chronicle [Yuanshi](https://bliptext.com/articles/history-of-yuan) these mountains are named Yùlǐbólǐ (玉里伯里), and the Kipchaks are called Qīnchá 欽察.\nNorth of Kipchaks and Kimaks lay endless forest.\nOf all the numerous tribes, the Kimaks were ready to head a new political tribal union.\nThey created a new Kimak Kaganate state, a federation of seven tribes, seven Khanlyks.\n[Abu Said Gardezi](https://bliptext.com/articles/abu-said-gardezi) (d. 1061) wrote that the Kimak state incorporated seven related tribes: [Yemeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/yemek), [Kipchaks](https://bliptext.com/articles/kipchaks), [Eymür](https://bliptext.com/articles/ayrums), [Tatar](https://bliptext.com/articles/tatars-kimek), [Bayandur](https://bliptext.com/articles/bayandur), [Lanikaz](https://bliptext.com/articles/lanikaz), and [Ajlad](https://bliptext.com/articles/ajlad).\nAt its height, the Kimak Kaganate had 12 nuclear tribes, extending from the Irtysh river and Altai mountains in the east to the Black Sea steppe in the west, into the taiga fringes in the north, and southward into the desert-steppe.\nAfter their decline, the [Jeti-Su](https://bliptext.com/articles/jetisu) Kimaks retreated back to the upper Irtysh region, and the western Kipchak-Kimaks settled in the North [Pontic](https://bliptext.com/articles/pontic-caspian-steppe) steppes.\nThe Kimaks were originally [Tengrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/tengriism), with possibly some [Nestorian Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/nestorian-christianity) communities.\nIn the 11th century [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam) made some inroads.\n[Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab) and [Persian](https://bliptext.com/articles/persian-people) geographers, travelers, and historians provide an abundance of information about the Kimaks.\nIn 821 the Arab Tamim ibn Bahr traveled to [Tokuz-Oguzes](https://bliptext.com/articles/tokuz-oguzes) through Kimak and Kipchak lands.\nHis descriptions were later used by other authors.\nThe Persian traveler [Gardezi](https://bliptext.com/articles/abu-said-gardezi) recorded the Kimaks, noting that their location was previously on record as the territory of the people called by the Chinese authors \"Chumukun\".\nIn the 9th century, the Kimaks allied with the Oguz.\nIn the second half of the 9th century, the reinforced Kimaks began drifting westwards.\nThey occupied the lands of the [Pecheneg](https://bliptext.com/articles/pecheneg) (Besenyo, Badjinak, Patsinak, [Pecheneg](https://bliptext.com/articles/pecheneg), called by the Arabs “Badjnaks”, and by the Byzantines “Patsinaks”), nomadic cattle breeders whose nucleus were the tribes of the [Kangar union](https://bliptext.com/articles/kangar-union).\nThe Pecheneg position worsened, their union was defeated by an alliance of Oguzes, Kimaks, and Karluks.\nKimaks, together with Oguzes, seized Kangar Pecheneg lands along the [Seyhun](https://bliptext.com/articles/syr-darya) ([Syr-Darya](https://bliptext.com/articles/syr-darya)) and in the Aral area, taking over the pastures in the Southern [Urals](https://bliptext.com/articles/urals).\nUnder pressure of Kimaks, the Pecheneg moved from the Aral to the Lower [Itil](https://bliptext.com/articles/atil) steppes, and from there on to the [Don](https://bliptext.com/articles/don-river)-[Dnieper](https://bliptext.com/articles/dnieper) [interfluvial](https://bliptext.com/articles/interfluve), pushing the [Magyars](https://bliptext.com/articles/magyars) westward.\nAt the end of the 9th century in the south of the Eastern European steppes formed a new nomadic union of Pecheneg.\nTheir neighbors were stronger and better known people: Oghuzes, Kipchaks, Magyars, and the [Khazar Kaganate](https://bliptext.com/articles/khazars).\nUnder pressure from joint assaults by [Cuman](https://bliptext.com/articles/cuman)/Kipchaks and their linguistic Oghuz cousins of the Kimek Khaganate, and taking advantage of the weakness of the Khazar Kaganate, the Pecheneg moved through its territory to the west, bringing destruction to the settled populations of Bulgars and [Alans](https://bliptext.com/articles/alans) in the N.Caucasus.\nIn the 10th century, the Kimek were allied with the Oghuzes.\nIn his 10th-century work, [Ibn Haukal](https://bliptext.com/articles/ibn-haukal) drew a map showing that Kipchak-Kimak tribes together with Oghuzes pastured in the steppes north of the Aral Sea, and [al-Masudi](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-masudi) at approximately the same time wrote that all of them were coaching along Emba and Yaik.\nIn Middle East, the Cuman–Kipchak country began to be called [Desht-i-Kipchak](https://bliptext.com/articles/desht-i-kipchak) and [Cumania](https://bliptext.com/articles/cumania).\n[Al-Biruni](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-biruni) noted that Oghuzes quite often pastured in the country of Kimek.\nSome clans of Kimak tribes quite often coached along the coast of the Caspian Sea: \"[Shahname](https://bliptext.com/articles/shahname)\" even calls that sea as Kimak Sea\". The main western neighbors of Kimek-Kipchaks in the 10th century were [Bashkirs](https://bliptext.com/articles/bashkirs), with whom at that time the westernmost Kipchak clans established very close contacts.\nThey dominated the heartland of Asia, controlled a key central portion of the [Silk Road](https://bliptext.com/articles/silk-road), and influenced events from China to Persia and Europe, on a par with the [Scythians](https://bliptext.com/articles/scythian) and [Mongols](https://bliptext.com/articles/mongols).\nThe Kimak polity may seen as one of the great pastoral, nomadic empires of all time.\nAt the end of the 10th century, not only the [Caliphate](https://bliptext.com/articles/caliphate) writers and scientists were knowledgeable about them, but in the Central Asian states journeys to the Kimak country were well known and discussed in the markets and chaihanas (tea houses).\nThe Kimeks were ruled by a \"[Kagan](https://bliptext.com/articles/khagan), also called \"Khakan\" in the eastern records, not of the [Ashina](https://bliptext.com/articles/ashina-tribe) dynasty. In the 10th and 11th centuries the ruling clan was the [Tatar](https://bliptext.com/articles/tatars-kimek). Later they appear to have been ruled by the Ilbari clan.\nDuring the 10th century the Kipchaks became independent within the Kaganate (if they were ever dependent in the first place) and began migrating westward.\nThe zenith of Kimak power came under the Ilburi rulers near the end of the 12th century.\nIn 1183, the Kimaks attacked [Volga Bulgaria](https://bliptext.com/articles/volga-bulgaria), and they twice sacked [Khwarezm](https://bliptext.com/articles/khwarezm), in the 1152 and 1197.\n\n## Decline\nThe Kimak federation occupied a huge territory from the [Tobol](https://bliptext.com/articles/tobol) and Irtysh rivers to the Caspian Sea and [Syr-Darya](https://bliptext.com/articles/syr-darya).\nThe northern border of the Kimak federation was the Siberian taiga, the eastern border was the Altai Mountains, the southern border was the lifeless steppe Bet Pak.\nThe borders naturally protecting them from their enemies, the Kimaks lived undisturbed.\nTheir neighbors were Karluks, Oguzes and Kyrgyzes.\nKimaks, Kipchaks, Oguzes, Petchenegs, [Ugrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/ugrians) and other peoples and ethnic groups of the multi-ethnic Kimak Kaganate lived peacefully and prosperous.\nIn the beginning of the 11th century the Kimaks and Kipchaks pushed the Oguzes to the south, Petchenegs to the west, Karluks to the southeast, and the Ugrians to the north into the Siberian taiga, and became owners of the ancient [Kangju](https://bliptext.com/articles/kangju).\nIndividual Khanlyks of the Kimak Kaganate grew stronger, separatist forces increased, undermining central authority.\nThe Khakan became only a militia leader, there was no central army, each subject Khan had his small army.\nThe Kimaks and then [Khitay](https://bliptext.com/articles/khitan-people) pressed the Kipchaks to move west, occupying lands that earlier belonged to Oguzes.\nAfter seizing Oguz lands, the Kipchaks grew considerably stronger, and the Kimaks became dependents of them.\nThe Kipchak migration was a planned invasion, a capture of richer pastures.\nPart of the Kimaks remained in the ancient land along the Irtysh, and a part left with the Kipchaks to the west.\nA larger portion of the Kimak Kaganate tribes, the Kimaks, Kipchaks, Pechenegs, and the Oguzes migrated to the west, to beyond Ural, Volga, Don and Dniepr, changing the ethnic map of Eastern Europe.\nThe southern Karluks joined the [Karakhanid](https://bliptext.com/articles/karakhanid) state.\nA significant mass of Kipchaks and Kimaks remained in the Irtysh territories with the ancient [Volga Finns](https://bliptext.com/articles/volga-finns) of western Siberia.\nSubsequently, they formed the [Siberian Tatars](https://bliptext.com/articles/siberian-tatars) and other Turkic peoples.\nIn the west, the Kipchaks followed the path taken previously by the Pechenegs under pressure of the Oguzes, and later the Oguzes under pressure of the Kimaks and Kipchaks.\nThey crossed the Volga, Don, [Dniestr](https://bliptext.com/articles/dniestr), and Dniepr, and reached the Danube.\nOn their way the Kipchaks were joined by the remains of the Petchenegs and Oguzes.\nThe Rus chronicles under year 1054 records an appearance near [Kiev](https://bliptext.com/articles/kiev) of the Oguz people, who were pushed by Kipchaks, a branch of middle Irtysh and [Ob](https://bliptext.com/articles/ob-river) Kimaks.\nA court doctor of the Seljuk Sultans, [al-Marwazi](https://bliptext.com/articles/sharaf-al-zaman-al-marwazi) tells that \"Kais\" and \"Kuns\" expelled the \"Shars\" tribe ([Middle Turkic](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-turkic-languages) sarïğ), and the Shars, in turn, caused the chain displacements and migrations of the [Turkmens](https://bliptext.com/articles/qarluqs), then [Oghuzes](https://bliptext.com/articles/oghuz-turks) and finally [Pechenegs](https://bliptext.com/articles/pechenegs).\n[Matthew of Edessa](https://bliptext.com/articles/matthew-of-edessa) tells that the \"people of snakes\" pressed the \"red-haired\", and the \"red-haired\" moved on the Oguzes, who together with the Petchenegs attacked Byzantium.\n[Pletnyova](https://bliptext.com/articles/svetlana-pletnyova) identified the Kais as Kimaks and the Sharys as Kipchaks, whose endonym was [calqued](https://bliptext.com/articles/calque) by [East Slavs](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-slavs) as [Polovtsy](https://bliptext.com/articles/polovtsy) (compare [OES](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-east-slavic) polovъje, meaning \"light yellow\").\nBesides the Sharys, i.e. the yellow Kipchaks, participated other Kimak hordes (Kais, Kuns), and other members of the Kaganate in the advance to the West.\nHowever, [Golden](https://bliptext.com/articles/peter-benjamin-golden) identified the Qays as the [Kumo Xi](https://bliptext.com/articles/kumo-xi) who were of [Proto-Mongolic](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-mongols) origins, and Shary as \"[Yellow Uyghurs](https://bliptext.com/articles/yugurs)\", led by Basmyl chiefs, rather than Kipchaks.\nand \"the People of the Snake\" should be interpreted as \"People of the chieftain named Snake-Dragon\" and identified with an anti-Karakhanid tribal coalition (including the Qays among others) led by Budrach, a [Yabaku](https://bliptext.com/articles/yabaku) chieftain whose epithet was Böke \"Great Dragon / Great Snake\", following Klyashtorny.\nThe Kimak Kaganate's fall in the mid-11th century was caused by external factors.\nThe migration of the Central Asian [Mongolic](https://bliptext.com/articles/mongolic-languages)-speaking nomads pushed by the [Mongolic](https://bliptext.com/articles/mongolic-languages) [Khitay](https://bliptext.com/articles/liao-dynasty) state Lyao formed in Northern China in 916 AD. The [Khitay](https://bliptext.com/articles/liao-dynasty) nomads occupied the Kimak and Kipchak lands west of the Irtysh.\nThe Kaganate thereafter declined, and the Kimeks were probably at times subjected to [Kyrgyz](https://bliptext.com/articles/kyrgyz-people) and [Kara-Khitai](https://bliptext.com/articles/kara-khitai) overlordship.\nIn the 11th–12th centuries the Mongolic-speaking [Naiman](https://bliptext.com/articles/naimans) tribe in its westward move displaced the Kimaks-Kipchaks from the Mongolian Altai and Upper Irtysh.\nFrom the middle of the 12th century the Mongolic tribes predominated almost in all the territory of modern Mongolia.\nIn the 12th century the territory of the khanate included the southern Urals, the eastern Volga area, the [Mangyshlak Peninsula](https://bliptext.com/articles/mangyshlak-peninsula), and the region northwest of the Aral Sea.\nTheir centers included [Kimäk](https://bliptext.com/articles/kim-k) and [Sangir](https://bliptext.com/articles/sangir-central-asia).\nMost of the population was semi-nomadic, a minority were sedentary farmers, and many of the city dwellers were craftsmen.\nIn the northern parts of Kimek territory were underground towns of tunnel networks and chambers to escape the cold.\nIn the 13th century the remnant of the Kimak Khanate was conquered by the [Mongols](https://bliptext.com/articles/mongols) and its lands were assigned to the Ulus of [Jochi](https://bliptext.com/articles/jochi).\nSee [Golden Horde](https://bliptext.com/articles/golden-horde) for the area's subsequent history.\nA significant part of the population in the Kipchak Khanate state, created by the Mongols, was from the Kimak Kaganate lands.\nThe Kimak leader [Bachman Khan](https://bliptext.com/articles/bachman-khan) resisted some years after the Mongols conquered the region.\n\n# Economy\nWith their settlements and pastures stretching for thousands of kilometers from the Irtysh to the Caspian Sea and from the [taiga](https://bliptext.com/articles/taiga) to the Kazakhstan semi-deserts, the economy of the Kimak confederation, varied between the eastern areas and the western areas, and between the northern forest-steppe and the southern foothills of the [Tian-Shan](https://bliptext.com/articles/tian-shan) mountains.\nThe Persian Anonym emphasized that Kipchaks living in the extreme western areas of the Kaganate lead a more primitive way of life than those who lived near the Irtysh, where the city Imak was the center of the Kimak union and summer seat of the Kimak Kagan.\nThe Kimak economy was classic Central Asian pastoral nomadism, with the Turkic pattern of widely varying local economic specializations and adaptations.\nThe key animal was horse and the main subsistence animal was sheep.\nAs a subsistence animal, fatty-tailed sheep provided meat for food, oil for cooking, and tallow for light.\nThe poorest Kimaks herded cattle.\nThey wintered in the steppe between the [Emba](https://bliptext.com/articles/emba-river) and Ural rivers, but summered near the Irtysh.\nThe summer home of the Kimak Khakans was in the town of Imak, in the middle Irtysh, the winter capital was Tamim on the southern shore of lake [Balkhash](https://bliptext.com/articles/balkhash-lake).\nArcheology confirms that te Kimaks in the Irtysh area were semi-settled, [Al-Idrisi](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-idrisi) in the 12th century wrote about Kimak cultivated lands as a well-known fact, with wheat crops, millet, barley, legumes, and even rice.\nThe Kimaks also raised grapes and were beekeepers.\nThey left remains of irrigation systems and ruins of castles.\nAl-Idrisi describes in detail the Kimak cities, emphasizing that all of them were well fortified.\nIn the Kagan's city, with its concentration of Kimak aristocracy, were markets and temples.\nSedentary life led to construction of more stable dwellings, in the settlements and cities clay-walled semi-dugouts were widely used alongside felt [yurts](https://bliptext.com/articles/yurt).\nTypically, both type of dwellings had a hearth in the center.\nThe Kipchaks of both written sources and archeological evidence combined pastoral cattle breeding with some elements of sedentary life.\nThe \"Desht-i-Kipchak\" or Kiptchak steppes were well organized for prosperous nomadic cattle breeding.\nThe steppe was subdivided into locations with certain pasture routes, [yaylak](https://bliptext.com/articles/yaylak) summer settlements and [kishlak](https://bliptext.com/articles/kishlak) winter settlements.\nNear permanent yaylak and kishlak settlements were [kurgan](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurgan) cemeteries.\nIn the settlements and along the steppe shlyakhs ('roads') and coaching routes Kipchaks erected ancestor sanctuaries with stone statues representing the deceased.\nThe favorite animal was the horse, used for riding and draught in agriculture, and horse meat was considered the best.\nAmong the crafts were leather processing, felt manufacturing, clothing and footwear, horse harnesses of leather and felt.\nThe Kimaks and other tribes of the Kaganate produced weapons, implements, and agricultural tools.\nIn the forest-steppe areas woodworking was widespread.\nUtensils, yurt parts, etc. were made of wood.\nIron, gold, and silver were mined and processed.\nKimak cities were mostly located along the trading ways.\nTrade was mostly barter, farmers exchanged grain and flour for lambs and leather, but monetary trade was active as well.\nUnder the influence of trading relations with Muslim Arabs, the Kimak Kaganate was drawn into the slave-trading business.\n\"Objectionable people\" and even relatives were sold into slavery.\nSlavery became the fate of multitudes, sold by [Khitay](https://bliptext.com/articles/khitan-people) running endless manhunt attacks and roundups.\nThis tragedy lasted for 200 years, c. 850 – 1050.\n\n# Culture\nThe Kimak were literate in the [Old Turkic script](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-turkic-script).\nAbu Dulaf (c. 940), and Ibn al-Fakikh wrote about the Kimak Kaganate: \"They have reeds with which they write\".\nArcheologists found 10th- to 11th-century bronze mirrors with inscriptions near Urdjar in the Tarbagatai mountains, and in the Irtysh region.\nL. Kimball stipulates that literate Kimak had works of law, religion, history, and epic poetry, none of which have survived.\nAlthough the Kimak had copper coins, most trade was done by barter.\nHunting was a key part of Kimak life.\nLarge group hunts served as training for war.\nPride, prestige, and leadership were associated with the use of falcons, hawks, golden eagles, and hunting dogs, and with the pursuit of beasts of prey, including the now extinct [Caspian tiger](https://bliptext.com/articles/caspian-tiger) and the [snow leopard](https://bliptext.com/articles/snow-leopard).\nKimak Khans wore golden crowns and clothes sewn with gold.\nAl Idrisi relayed that Kimaks extract gold with mercury and float it in dung.\nKimak towns were a symbiosis of local predominantly Turkic Kimak populations, pre-existing autochthonous culture, and people from elsewhere in Central Asia.\nA characteristic feature was that all towns were well-fortified, and in each a prince-chieftain headed a garrison.\nTowns were situated on lake shores, river banks, in border areas, and in impregnable mountain areas.\nA fortified wall with an iron gate surrounded the largest capital town Tamim of the Khakan, where also lived aristocrats.\nIn the hills stood castle-forts surrounded by moats.\nKimaks of the [Seihun](https://bliptext.com/articles/syr-darya) steppe traded in sheep.\nKimak presence on the Volga enabled them to use local major trade routes, and put them in contact with the Byzantine and Viking worlds.\nKimaks made cheese and beverages from fermented mare's milk, some of which probably were distilled to high potency, and beverages from rice, millet, barley, and honey.\n\n# Religion\nThe Kimak religion was the same as the majority of Turks.\nIn the steppes from the Baikal to the Danube the Turks believed in Tengri.\nThe western neighbors of the Kyrgyzes (Kimaks, Kipchaks, Cumans, Oguzes, Pechenegs, Karluks, etc.), who were located closer to the Muslim lands, still professed [Tengrianism](https://bliptext.com/articles/tengrianism) in the 9th century.\nThe Kimaks had a tradition of ancestor reverence.\nOn the border with the [Uyghurs](https://bliptext.com/articles/uyghurs), Kimaks adopted [Manichaeism](https://bliptext.com/articles/manichaeism).\nThe Kimaks also worshipped rocks with images (apparently ancient [petroglyphs](https://bliptext.com/articles/petroglyphs)) and images of human feet.\n[Al-Idrisi](https://bliptext.com/articles/al-idrisi) spoke about belief in various spirits, and about acceptance by some Kimaks of Manichaeism and Islam.\nApparently, the last two religions started penetrating the Kimaks in the 10th century but became widely accepted much later, and then only in the central Irtysh and Balkhash areas.\n\n## Sanctuaries and Burial customs\nThe most typical and notable feature of Kimak-Kipchak and Cuman culture are the [kurgan stelae](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurgan-stelae) or balbals, erected at sanctuaries with square fencing of rough stone and gravel.\nIn the 6th through 9th centuries similar sanctuaries with statues of deceased ancestors were built by the Göktürks and Uyghurs.\nAfter destruction of the Göktürk and Uyghur Kaganates, Kipchaks and Cumans were one of the few Turkic peoples who preserved this tradition.\nCumans and Kipchaks continued the tradition until the loss of their political independence.\nFrom the end of the 9th century the construction of small fenced sanctuaries devoted to ancestors, with a statue (or statues) inside became a distinctive feature of the Cumans and Kipchaks.\nThe obelisks were often simple rough stelae, frequently with figures without details.\nFaces were indicated by deeply carved lines, frequently heart-shaped.\nFemale statues differed from men's by round breasts.\nThe sanctuaries were built only for rich and noble nomads.\nNizami described Kimak reverence to their ancestors.\nKimaks and Cumans/Kipchaks erected many statues, believed to have special power and honored accordingly: \"All Cumans/Kipchak tribes, when they happen to pass there, bow down twice in front of this obelisk. Mounted or on foot, they bow to it as to a Creator. A horseman takes an arrow from his quiver in honor of it, shepherds with flocks leave a sheep behind\".\nSome Kimaks cremated their dead: near the Irtysh cremation burials have been found.\nS.A.Pletneva developed a comparative description of Middle Age N. Pontic burials customs including Kimaks, Cumans and Kipchaks.\nThe grave gifts are those necessary for a nomad during a trip to the next world: horse harnesses, weapons, less frequently personal decorations and vessels with ritual food.\nNext to the diseased was laid his true comrade (‘tovarich’), a horse.\nThe belief in need to supply the diseased with the things necessary on the road and at least for initial life in the other world is described by the 10th-century traveller and writer [Ibn Fadlan](https://bliptext.com/articles/ahmad-ibn-fadlan), describing not a Kimak-Kipchak but an Oguz funeral ceremony.\nHowever, from nomad [kurgan](https://bliptext.com/articles/kurgan) excavations we know that the funeral ceremonies of the Turkic peoples was generally similar, meaning the general provisions for the construction of funeral complexes were identical.\n\"And if a person from their number would die, for him is dug a big hole in a shape of a house, he would be dressed in his jacket, his belt, his bow... and would put in his hand a wooden cup with nabiz, would put before him a wooden vessel with nabiz, would bring everything that he has, and would lay it with him in that house... Then would place him in it and cover the house above him with decking, and pile above it something like a dome of clay. Then they would take horses, and depending on their number would kill a hundred of them, or two hundred, or one, and would eat their meat, except for the head, legs, hide, and tail. And, truly, they stretch all this on wooden frames and say: \"These are his horses on whom he would go to paradise\". And if he ever killed men and was brave, they would carve images from wood numbering those whom he killed, would place them on his tomb and would say: \"These are his youngsters who would serve him in paradise\".\"\n- Ibn Fadlan\nThe nomads were always accompanied into the other world by slaughtered horses, and sometimes by others animals, and enemies killed by him represented by simple stelae or rough human images of stone or wood.\nThe horses were necessary for speedy crossing, for coaching from one world to another, the more of them the better.\nAmong Oguzes the images of the deceased were neither installed over the tombs nor in special sanctuaries.\nThat custom was only among the population of the Kimak Kaganate, and mainly among the Kipchaks.\n# [Kipchak \"balbal\" in Dnipro | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Polovtsy.jpg]\n\n## Khan-Priests\nTurkic khans, including the Kimak Khan, had a special role as High Priest and bearer of prophecy.\nShabib al-Karani left a probably distorted description of such a ritual:\n\"The Khakan of the Turks has a specific day when they light a huge bonfire. Khakan speaks an oracular phrase into the fire. Then he looks intently staring into the fire, and turns away from the fire. If his face becomes yellow, it is a sign of fertility and good, if it becomes white, harvest will fail, if it becomes green means illness and epidemics, and if it becomes black, it indicates a death of the Khakan or a distant journey. When the latter happens, Khakan hastens to go on a journey or a raid. Kimak shamans had yada, \"rain stones\", which were used to bring rain when it was needed.\"\n\n# Tribal composition\n\n## Gardizi list\nAccording to [Gardizi](https://bliptext.com/articles/gardizi) (d. 1061), the Kimek confederation included the seven tribes of:\n\n## Hudud list\n10th-century [Hudud al-'Alam](https://bliptext.com/articles/hudud-al-alam) mentions the \"country of Kīmāk\", ruled by a khagan (king) who has eleven lieutenants that hold hereditary fiefs.\nThis suggests that there were 11 divisions.\n\n# List of known rulers\n\n# Literature\n[Kimäk Qağanlığı](https://bliptext.com/articles/kim-k-qa-anl)","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}